Featured: A Nexus from Every Android Manufacturer?

What’s the value of a brand? Think of some major names off the top of your head: McDonalds, Walmart, Nike. For better or worse, each of these brands has a distinct quality and experience with its products. If some sort of scandal pops up, then a corporation will spend as much money as needed to protect its name.

In essence, companies have to pay attention to their brand value. (Some studies show that brand value can account for up to half of some companies’ net worth.)

The Value of the Nexus Brand

If branding is so important in the business world, then how does the Nexus brand hold up?

So far, Nexus has served as the benchmark of the Android industry. The devices have not been touted as the fastest and greatest things ever. Rather, they are showcases of what the Android platform is capable of. If another company wants to have a truly standout phone in the market, then it would need to top the current Nexus device with its own bells and whistles.

Let’s take a quick history lesson. Google commissioned several devices under the “Nexus” name, and the corporation has worked with several partners in bringing these devices to market.

Nexus One: phone built by HTC

Nexus S: phone built by Samsung

Galaxy Nexus: phone built by Samsung

Nexus 7: tablet built by Asus

Nexus Q: media-streaming device built by Google

In comparison, think of some of the other big-name phones out there. Can you imagine Samsung asking Sony or HTC to build a Galaxy? Of course not! Google and Samsung have some massively different plans for their smartphones.

The Nexus Rumors

Rumors are floating around that Google will continue to work with multiple manufacturers, but they’ll do so at the same time to offer multiple, potentially competing Nexus devices.

Is this a good idea? Why on earth Google want to create multiple versions of the same device? After all, Apple’s entire business strategy has been built off unified product-lines that hold up a consistent value. Android is all about diversity, right?

Some developers might argue that you can have too much diversity in a platform, thereby creating difficulty for new innovation on the software side. If several manufacturers created at least one device with roughly the same specs, then the idea of the Nexus benchmark could serve developers (and the entire Android market) in order to increase the growth of apps native to the Android market.

The fact is that Android users are incredibly segmented, depending on their version of OS and the quality of their devices. Diversity is a beautiful thing, but something has to be done to keep the multiple versions of Android at roughly the same quality level in order for the Play store to still be able to serve everyone.